I'll try that, thanks. I have 36 sq. ft., didn't use very much.

 

For me I would approach sound deadening very carefully. Think you are adding weight to the car. You should first identify where the existing deadening is inadequate. Very often excessive noise is due to other contribution like poorly selected tires, balance, driveline ext. For me with my sound upgrades I didn't feel the need to add sound deadening to the doors. The aftermarket speakers do not produce enough bass to cause door panel vibration. Mini already have deadening on the door panel as you can see. I did add very small amount to the body panel for the rear speakers as they produce more bass energy. I have no vibration or rattle playing up to the limit of the head unit when perceptible amplifier distortion kicks in.

Sound deadening adds dead weight, which is the biggest enemy for handling. I would chase the root cause of the sources first and only add as much deadening as necessary.

 

Wanting to get your money's worth of what you bought has pitfalls. The patches you added to the door frame will buy you next to nothing except added weight. It is my 2 Pence.

 

I don't think a little sound deadening will impact my handling that much. Even if it does, I just don't really care for a daily driver. I'd rather have a slightly quieter ride and better bass response. My midrange speakers used to rattle slightly at higher volumes; that's been eliminated. I'm happy. I will probably add some more to the wheel wells once I fix my bent rims.

 

The sound dampening helps quiet down all the little rattles and resonance this car seems to have plenty of. I've put a bunch on the inner doors plus under the dash and wherever the rattles were emanating from. Quieter now from the treatment and all the rehab work over the last year.

Parts Express has some lightweight damping sheets that are very low cost and work well. About $5 for a 10x13 sheet (plus shipping)

 

Where'd you go about putting the stuff on the dash? You mean the dash top or behind the dash trim itself? I'm going to be replacing my dash soon so I may look for areas in there to coat.

I sourced a full anthracite dash, trunk lid that I'm currently missing, updated hatch striker that I think may be causing noise (there was an official TSB for the hatch making noise), and a full passenger anthracite door card from Allmag a couple of weeks ago. The door card is a facelift too, so the armrest is swept out more and is a bit larger. Might actually be useable. Also got the chrome trim rings for the speedo/vents that actually clip in and replace the existing trim instead of the cheap covers I have on there now. Will only need the drivers door card to complete my anthracite/chrome interior.

 

there are a lot of metal clips for the airbag covers and those suckers rattle, I live on a gravel road and it can be maddening

 

There was a madening buzz at 3K rpms or about 70 mph coming from the under the dash top right about where that circular vent is.

We tried stuffing some foam in there first. That helped a bunch, but still could hear it trying to make a come back. Stuck some of the damping sheet directly to the under side of the dash pad and that further quieted it down. Tough to do, but it did help.

 

So I installed the facelift passenger door card tonight and the complete anthracite dash. No more ugly alloy patina! Also replaced my chrome speedo/vent trim ring caps with the actual snap-in parts. No pics of the dash just yet since the lighting is bad, but I'll grab some tomorrow.

Added the trunk lid as well, as the car was missing that when I bought it.

Did the door while there was still light:

 

My aunt has a better phone camera than me:

 

Looking good! That anthracite interior really looks great.

 

Yeah, anthracite was the best. Thanks for the parts! I'll be grabbing the drivers door whenever you get it in.

Also ordered replica GP gauge faces now that I see the anthracite in person. I think it'll look good with some darker gauge faces and the chrome rings.

 

Forgot to ask this when I did my dash, here goes anyway. When I took the center trim off, there was a wire that prevented it from coming all the way off. I had noticed it since I bought the car, but for some reason I always thought it was a factory ambient temperature sensor or something. It terminates in a small bulb. It doesn't have a filament, can't really tell what's inside it. But when I took the trim off, I saw that it had just been drilled through the trim and the wire was puttied to the back of it. The wire goes back to a black box in front of the firewall.

I have no idea what this thing could be. Does anyone have an idea?

 

I’ve ordered a WJB rear wheel bearing. I was being stupid before and couldn’t get over the fact that the noise and vibration I was experiencing was not textbook wheel bearing failure. It fails the spring test. That’s really all I should have gone on. That will arrive soon and hopefully eliminate my vibrations.

 

Wheel bearing came in today and I went ahead and put it in. Super easy install: take off the wheel, caliper bracket bolts, bungee the caliper up, take out the rotor screw and the rotor, and the upper sway bar endlink bolt to give room to remove 2 of the hub bolts. There’s 4 hub bolts and they came out easy with an extension on my impact and the endlink out of the way. Maybe a half hour job.

And wow! The car is so quiet now! Such a huge difference; it must have been deafeningly loud before. Good to know my bent rims are causing no problems.

 

There's always something. A/C no longer blows cold. I'm pretty sure this just happened today. I just replaced the condenser and recharged the refrigerant a few months ago so unless I have a catastrophic leak, I'm guessing it's my compressor. Great.

 

Good to hear that you finally solve the rumbling. Long ago I had similar experience. It made such a racket and I didn't know then that when you take off the wheel and just hand spin the hub all seemed OK. But with a bit more attention I could feel the grittiness. It was also a rear wheel bearing on a rear wheel drive Capri. I could not replace the bearing myself as there is a trick in changing the bearing.

To press out the bearing the axle shop used a cold chisel to loosen the pressed in retaining ring, and then press the bad bearing out and repress in a new replacement.

 

My old hub was in terrible shape when I took it out. It did not turn smoothly and was easily audible, which bearings should not be. Glad that problem is solved. It truly transforms the driving experience when all you can hear is regular road/wind noise and the motor.

As for my A/C, I took another drive tonight and realized the fans are not coming on at all. I know the fan should run continuously with the A/C on. Not sure what would cause this condition yet, any pointers?

 

From what I gather, if the low speed fan does not come on or the power steering fan fails the ECU inhibits the AC from turning on. Do check the power steering fan first.

A lot of folks low speed fan failed are due to the resistor that in near the fan broke either by corrosion or overheating. I think is the former. You can find a very very long thread on the low speed fan fix/hack.

If it were me I would just buy a replacement module and call it done instead of finding a place to mount the "will never fail again" resistor. I hate to be the follow on owner to inherit all these hack mods.

this resistor in in a plastic housing by the fan on the radiator

 

At this point I don't know if the high speed is working so this could be a serious problem if it's not. How would I even check the power steering fan?

 

Test drove again. If it was just my fan that was the issue, wouldn't the A/C gradually get cooler as I increased speed? The ram air from the grill should be more than enough to play the part of the fan, right? I don't notice a change in temperature from the vents regardless of my speed.

 

While I pointed out the common cause of AC not worky, I recommend you perform systematic debug. I see that you have auto AC which can add complexity, but the basic first steps are the same.

1) Verify the AC compressor clutch is getting power (12V) when the AC is switched on. There is a single wire connector by the radiator for the AC clutch solenoid.
2) I am under the impression that as long as ignition key is switched on, the power steering pump runs - and hence also the cooling fan for the controller by it. You can just look under the car at the fan.
3) For the high speed and low speed fan, the way I check them is at the three pin connectors by the radiator driver side. There are two brown wires. One for high speed and one for low speed. Just measure the resistance of both with respect to ground with the ignition off. They both should read almost like dead short (i.e. a few ohms max). If one reads high, that bounds to be the low speed resistor has failed.
4) Do note that there are other electrical causes for the AC and/or radiator fan not to work. These includes fuses and relays.

All I wrote are recalled from memory.

 

I have replaced 3 r53 compressor clutch coils so far, they are weak but are pretty easy and you do not have to get Into the refrigerated side they come right off the front of the compressor

 

Is there a sensor to detect if the compressor is running? I’d think it would be odd for both my fan and compressor to stop working at the same time unless they are connected somehow. As in, if the compressor isn’t working, would the fan still run?

 

I am almost 100% positive the ECU does not know if the compressor is not running. Its turning on/off of the coil is just a dumb output. In the auto AC, there is a dedicated controller for climate control, but still as far as the clutch is concern, it is still dumb. The only thing the ECU know is when the compressor head pressure is too high. While the pressure switch can fail, it is very rare.